After France, our next destination was Italy and Milan was our first stop.
Here’s what we got up to:
After a great few days in Lyon, it was time to head to Italy. We took the train from Lyon Part-Dieu to Milano Centrale and the train took just under 5 hours. Milano Centrale train station is huge and beautiful. It was quite busy too so I didn’t take any photos there. We also had to try find the office to pick up our Airbnb keys.
After picking up our keys, we walked to our Airbnb (more on this later). We picked the place we stayed in because it was close to Milano Centrale and also metro stations to get to central Milan. Our area had a mix of old buildings and tall office buildings. We settled in after a longer train ride, Max watched the Formula 1 race on TV and I popped out to grab some snacks from the nearby supermarket.
We then headed out to dinner. We chose Pizzeria Savo as it was nearby and had good reviews. The menu noted they have gourmet pizzas. We ordered 2 pizzas and it was way too much! They were good though but we took some back home with us as we couldn’t eat everything.
Day 1:
This was our first full day in Milan and it was an early start as we had to figure out the Italian subway system. After a little bit of confusion on which lines to take, we got to central and made it to the Duomo di Milano.
The Milan Duomo is quite an impressive building. It’s one of the largest cathedrals in the world and we had tickets to go up to the terrace (roof).
To get to the terraces, you can either take the lift or stairs. We opted for the stairs option, which was around 250 steps. It wasn’t too bad and the view from the terraces were great. It’s also a great way to appreciate the architectural details of the Duomo.
There are over 100 spires on the building and thousands of statues and gargoyles. It was pretty amazing. The scale of the roof structures can only be appreciated from the terrace. They’re massive. You can hardly see me on the photo on the left!
I do recommend going up the terraces for a good view and experiencing the Duomo. On your way down, you get to go straight inside the cathedral too.
I knew the Duomo di Milano is a big cathedral but being inside and seeing the scale of the interiors was something else. You feel quite small looking up the columns and how high the roof is. It was impressive.
The Duomo di Milano was our only booked activity in Milan this day and I’m glad we got that out of the way first.
Right beside the Duomo is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, another popular building in Milan and probably my favourite. This has designer luxury stores but has the most beautiful architecture.
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II is so beautiful and it can get quite busy with many tourists trying to take photos. The middle of the building is quite a popular photo spot.
After all the walking, I was getting quite hungry. I know we were in Italy but there is Jollibee in Milan and it was near the Duomo so we headed there for an early lunch.
If you’re not Filipino, you might not know about Jollibee. It is the most popular fast food chain in the Philippines. It is part of Filipino culture and they are known for their fried chicken. There is no Jollibee in NZ or even Australia. The last time I had Jollibee before having it here in Milan was in 2018 with my mum when we went back for a few weeks.
Max has never tried Jollibee but of course he’s heard all about it from me. I cannot tell you how excited I was when we found it in Milan and it satisfied years of my cravings. Max also liked it so he got the hype. The chicken is still crispy, the gravy was delicious and peach mango pie is still so good! I got the pineapple orange drink but in Milan, you can get beer with your meal so Max had one. I don’t think Jollibee sells alcoholic drinks in the Philippines.
After our Jollibee lunch, we went back to Galleria Vittorio and we checked out some of the luxury stores. Prada is from Milan and I almost bought a cardholder wallet there. We also checked out Rinascente which is a big Italian department store. I also saw on the map that there was Ferrari store nearby. It was cool they have a F1 car in the store and some bits besides the fashion pieces. I had no idea the Ferrari brand is a full blown fashion brand too with handbags, shoes and clothing. The prices were also of a luxury designer level.
Our tickets to the Duomo terraces also included the Museo del Duomo di Milano so we checked it out after. The museum wasn’t that big but it had an impressive model of the Duomo. Afterwards, we took the subway back home and had a nap.
After some rest, we took the subway to our next activity which was our favourite in Milan. I’ve seen this in Tiktok and someone told me on IG that it is so worth it so we booked it the night before. Thankfully we were able to get tickets to QC Termemilano.
QC Terme is a luxury day spa. They have a few locations and I’m so glad they had one in Milan and it was an easy subway ride too. The location isn’t too far from central which was good.
QC Termemilano has a mixture of indoor and outdoor pools, sauna and thermal baths. We really liked the converted sauna tram and it’s nicely lit up with fairy lights at night too.
I didn’t take many photos because we were trying relax and the people around us are in swimwear. It was a huge spa with many areas. Some pools/rooms were busier than others but we tried to go to as many as we could. The rose steam/sauna was good. I didn’t particularly enjoy the really high temp sauna but Max did. He also did a cold plunge/bath outside.
One of the best things included in the entry is having the Aperiterme, an evening apertif included. You also get the robe, slippers, towels and lockers for your stuff included too. Everyone in their robes can grab food and drinks in the dining hall before they check out the rest of the spa. This was so good and there were many options for food and drinks, including cocktails.
You can also book private massages but booking entrance to the whole spa is enough and well worth it.
We cannot rave about QC Termemilano enough. It’s worth a visit. From memory it was around 59€ or $106NZ. We cannot get this level of service and facilities for that price here in NZ. It’s amazing. We left here so relaxed. We took the subway back home and basically passed out having been in hot pools and saunas for a few hours. (Check out my TT video on QC Terme below for more snaps)
Day 2
We didn’t have specific plans for this day so we ended up going to Sforzesco Castle.
We ended up taking the subway at a different station which is by the Porta Nuova area, the more modern part of Milan. I like the juxtaposition of the modern buildings like on the left and the old heritage buildings on the right.
We then explored Sforzesco Castle which is a huge Medieval-Renaissance fortress. Entrance is free and within it are museums and art galleries (paid entry).
We ended up just walking around and not going inside the museums though and that was still fun. The architecture is quite interesting and beautiful.
Sforzesco Castle also has a lot of cats. We didn’t get to pet any but we admired them from afar. There was a mum with two kittens and they were so cute.
The castle backs into Parco Sempione too so we walked around this big park. Max found his crow bros. He loves crows and there were heaps in Europe. He tried to befriend them. He even got some seeds! It was fascinating to watch haha.
Milan is known for its fashion so after the park, we checked out a few vintage stores. There were a few close by. The one above is from Vintage Delirium, a huge vintage store and they had the best collection of Chanel and Hermes bags but also some one of runway pieces. It was amazing.
Max found out a vintage Hermes bag can be for sale for €30,000 or about NZ$53k and even more for croc leather. I didn’t buy anything from Milan but it was cool to browse. The shops we went to were such treasure troves.
After the vintage stores, we walked back to central, grabbed sushi at a deli and then some gelato before heading back home.
For our last dinner in Milan, we ended up at Mastro Tortello. It was nearby and specialised in tortellinis.
Milan Airbnb:
Our Milan Airbnb was good. It was walking distance to Milano Centrale train station, the building had a lift, it had a washine machine and aircon, the bathroom was nice and had what we needed but for some reason it was probably our least favourite one. It lacked character and was soulless. It was a bit weird that there was no duvet though! We just had a flat sheet. Overall, it served its purpose but it was just ok.
We only had 2 full days in Milan and after the high of Lyon, I think it was quite hard to top how much we loved our time in Lyon. Milan was good but we started feeling the effects of our travels. We were quite exhausted, felt run-down and on our last night, I started feeling ill. It made the next few days unpleasant but we had to keep going. I’ll get to it in more detail in my next post as we travelled to Cinque Terre next.
Last few thoughts from Milan:
- Milan felt small to us but not that walkable. We took the subway when we went out.
- The subway system is quite big and was confusing to start with but once we figured it out, it became much easier to navigate. The subway stations were old, dirty and looked more dodgy than in Lyon though but we never felt unsafe.
- The piazza by the Duomo di Milano is chaotic and watch out for people asking if you want your photos taken. This is a prime place for pick pockets too.
- Tap water in Italy is better than London (the worst) and France but I started feeling sick so I ended up buying bottled water just in case.
- Everyone in Milan looked chic. You can easily spot the locals vs tourists because they’re dressed impeccably well. Milan is known for its fashion for a reason. The men are also well dressed but the women are so chic.
- Lake Como can be done as a day trip from Milan. We initially thought of going there but since we only had 2 full days, we decided to stay in the city instead. If we had another day or two, we would’ve taken the train to Como to explore.
- Italians are much nicer than French. They seem friendlier and also the language is easier to pick up especially for me. The French like to have silent letters they don’t pronounce but in Italian, you basically pronounce every single one.
Europe Trip blog post links:
I’ve now made a habit of sharing my Tiktoks from our travels too so here are my Milan ones:
A Style Collector 
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